sea, and they occupied, the greatest part of the field.  I believe the fable of the Satyrs to have arisen from thence, and that they were said to inhabit these hills and mountains.  It is to be noted that in the channel of four leagues from the harbour of Shabak to this island, the water is never less than two and a half fathoms nor deeper than eleven, and also that the tide at this island does not ebb and flow above half a yard.  It begins to flow as soon as the moon begins to ascend towards the horizon, in the same order as already mentioned respecting Socotora.

[Footnote 290:  This mountain of the Satyrs may more properly be generally referred to the high range of mountains on this part of the coast, perhaps from abounding in the baboon called Simia Satyrus, or the Mandrill.—­E.]

[Footnote 291:  I know not what to make of the pianets; but the footsteps of beasts reaching to the edge of the water may probably refer to amphibious animals, while the flocks of pianets may have been water-fowl of some kind.—­E.]

The 26th at sunrise we departed from the island, rowing along a reef of rocks that ran between us and the land to which it was almost parallel, all the sea between it and the land being full of shoals and banks; but to seawards there were neither shoals nor banks nor any other impediment.  At nine o’clock we came to anchor at a small island encompassed by many flats and shoals, where there was a good haven.  This island was a league and a half from that we left in the morning, and 5 leagues short of Swakem.  The 27th at sunrise, we set sail from this second island, and two hours within the night we came to anchor a league and a half farther on in 28 fathoms water.  The 28th we bridled our oars and set sail.  At nine o’clock we anchored about two leagues from the land in 23 fathoms, on soft sand, like ouze or mud.  This morning we found some shoals under water, but the sea always shewed itself very green or red over them.  Two hours after noon we set sail again, and anchored at night in 37 fathoms on a sandy bottom, hard by an island a league and a half short of Swakem.  The coast runs N.N.W. and S.S.E. having all along a shoal which extends near half a league into the sea.  This land differs in nothing from that formerly described.  The 1st March 1541, departing from this anchorage, and having doubled a point of land made by the shoal, we approached the land inwards by a channel, and came to anchor in the haven of the city of Swakem.

Swakem was called by the ancients the port of Aspi, as may be seen in the third table of Africa by Ptolemy.  At this day it is one of the richest cities in the East[292].  It is situated within the Arabian Gulf or Red Sea, on the coast of Ethiopia sub Egypto, now called the land and coast of the Abexii or Abyssinians.  Among famous places, this may be reckoned equal or superior to them all in four things.  The